


Sleeves

by KittyCatriona (War_Worn_Lipstick)



Category: Phan, Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pastel Dan, Pastel Dan and Punk Phil, Rumors, Rumours, School, Shy Dan, Teacher-Student Relationship, dan's of-age, death/murder mentions (not serious), mention/implication of sexual predator (rumour), sort of not really, they're just friends for a while
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-16
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2018-07-15 11:57:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7221451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/War_Worn_Lipstick/pseuds/KittyCatriona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan runs into Phil and he's a bit scared for his life, but Phil isn't <em>actually</em> a murderer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleeves

**Author's Note:**

> This is hugely inspired by ["A Smile for Two, so I Can Share It with You"](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7212253) by ravehowell/alienpoetry. Like, I read it this morning, and then when I sat down to freewrite like I usually do this happened, and it's _just_ different enough from ravehowell's story I think I can get away with posting it. Honestly, though, read that story. It's freakin' amazing and adorable and much better than this one.

So Dan goes to school one day, and it’s a normal school day. He goes home from school that same day and quite literally runs into one Phil Lester, who Dan is sort of afraid of because, hello, have you seen Phil Lester? He’s like “bad boy” in the truest sense of the phrase. Jet black hair, lip piercing—Dan’s even sure he has tattoo sleeves, but his button-up is covering them. Dan squeaks and apologizes, and he starts thinking to himself about how generally _offensive_ he feels right now. Like, he thinks that if there was any person who could offend Phil Lester just by looking at him, it would be Dan. Pale pink jumper, short shorts, sneakers, and a tiara he weaved from daisies on his morning walk. Yeah. 

And the rush of words just keeps pouring from Dan’s mouth and Phil Lester is just staring at him, his expression completely blank. 

“Like, I totally didn’t mean to, please—” 

Dan wonders why he’s so pathetic.

“I just, don’t hurt me, I have a project due tomorrow and it’s worth half my grade—”

Dan wonders if Phil Lester carries a knife. 

“I’m sure you’re a great person, really, I mean, you’re definitely gorgeous—”

Dan wonders why he’s so gay. 

“Oh, God, I didn’t mean that, please don’t kill me—”

But really, Dan wonders, who wouldn’t be attracted to Phil Lester?

— — — 

“Caramel macchiato for Dan.”

Dan throws himself out of his seat, leaving the notes he’d been going over in a flurry behind him. “That’s me,” he says, and then he says it again because the first time it was too loud and too excited. He’s blushing as he takes the paper cup from the girl behind the counter. “Thanks,” he mumbles, turning around. 

Phil Lester is there with a sheepish smile, and Dan almost screams. 

Phil Lester is there with a sheepish smile about two feet in front of Dan, looking down at him, and Dan’s fist closes tight around his cup of coffee, and the lid pops off, and the hot liquid explodes onto his hand. He hisses and throws the cup down before frantically waving his hand around. He considers wiping the coffee off onto his jumper, but, hello, it’s cashmere. And his shorts today are white so that’s just a no-go. 

And then there’s a rush of apologies again and Dan doesn’t even know what he’s saying, but he knows it’s pathetic and relatively gay since most things he says are pathetic and relatively gay. He’d feel a lot better about this if he could remember exactly how he got out of getting stabbed last time he ran into Phil Lester, but it’s sort of a blur because Phil Lester had touched his face and also he doesn’t really think that actually happened. 

It hits Dan, as Phil Lester’s smile grows, that Phil Lester shouldn’t even be here. This is the school’s cafe, and Phil Lester is several years older than Dan and does _not_ attend this school. 

“—so please don’t hurt me and also what the hell are you doing here?” 

Phil Lester’s smile turns into a full grin and Dan feels warm and also terrified, like he’s looking into the eyes of a shark. As soon as he thinks that, though, a small voice in the back of his mind reminds him “Sharks aren’t even that bad! It’s all reputation!” and he shushes that voice because he’s pretty sure Phil Lester has killed a man. 

“You’re a student here?” Phil Lester asks. 

“Yes,” Dan squeaks. “What the hell are you doing here?” he asks again.

Phil Lester’s smile doesn’t disappear. “I’m going to be Ms. Phelps’ assistant for the quarter. You know Ms. Phelps?” 

Dan frowns because he’s pretty sure Phil Lester just told him he’s going to be a TA, and that just doesn’t line up in Dan’s mind. Why is Phil Lester, who’s probably killed a man, who maybe has tattoo sleeves and who definitely has a lip piercing, assisting Ms. Phelps?

“Do you?” Phil Lester’s smile disappears and Dan frowns. 

“Do I what?”

“Do you…” he looks uncomfortable. “…know Ms. Phelps?”

“Oh, yes, right, she teaches my creative writing and Shakespearean Lit courses.” 

The smile returns. “Awesome. Could you by chance… show me where her room is?”

And Dan stares around himself then, at the people gazing curiously at him and Phil Lester, and without thinking he wipes his coffee hands down the front of his cashmere jumper. “Yeah, o-okay.” 

— — —

It’s sort of funny to Dan how the entire school can dismiss people, like they don’t even exist, and then completely turn around and revere them. Maybe revere isn’t the right word, he’s not sure. But one second he was the quiet, pastel boy who no one looked twice at, and then there was a slight murmur because someone had said they’d seen him after school talking to Phil Lester, and Phil Lester was caressing his cheek and calling him cute, and of course that struck up some pretty disgusting rumours. And then Phil Lester was a TA and maybe things weren’t so weird after all, except he and that gay boy Dan Howell talked a lot and stood closer than two boys “probably should.” 

And like, okay, Dan had been entirely wrong. Phil Lester wasn’t _Phil Lester_ —he was Phil and he was a sweetheart. They were fast friends and Phil made Dan blush a lot. 

People kind of got used to Phil as an actual human being whenever he talked to them in class, but there were still things that they whispered. 

“He’s a TA to get close to the students,” they’d say. 

“He’s a predator,” they’d say.

“Poor Dan Howell,” they’d frown, and then they’d go about their days. 

It was nice for Dan because he was entirely in control. Phil always let him take the first steps. They were close and they had movie nights and they played lots of video games and listened to lots of music and it was very sweet. 

And then, when Dan finally turned eighteen, he and Phil went to see a movie and as the credits rolled, he leaned over and kissed Phil’s cheek. Phil turned towards him slightly, eyes wide and surprised, but not horrified, so that was a good sign, and Dan went in again, this time to the lips. Dan liked kissing Phil because it felt fuzzy. He told Phil that, and Phil smiled. “Like your sweater,” he said. 

— — — 

Dan Howell doesn’t see anyone from school anymore. Their words meant nothing and the rumours they started only hold space in his memory. He has Phil, though—fuzzy, sheepish, “bad boy” Phil Lester—and when Dan’s twenty two and he’s lying in bed beside Phil, he looks over the pillows and asks, “Phil Lester, have you ever killed a man?”

And he runs his fingers across the bare expanse of Phil’s arm, where he once thought there’d be tattoo sleeves, and he curses himself for blushing slightly. 

“I forgot to feed a goldfish once,” Phil says, and Dan smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'd love your thoughts!


End file.
